Skip to main content

I have not purchased a Sonos system yet, but am designing my layout and could use the community’s feedback.  We are completing a remodel where we now have a long great room with Kitchen, Dining, and Living Room. all in a row if looking down the room.  My initial plan is that the Living Room will have a tv with an Arc Ultra Soundbar (this all faces towards the dining/kitchen area).  Above the Dining Table I plan to have a pair of architectural speakers, and above the kitchen island another pair of architectural speakers.

My question is can I use the speakers above the dining table as surround speakers for the tv?  I assume this answer is yes, based on my readings you would just set them as surround speakers in the living room I believe.  Where it gets trickier is that we also hope at times to simply play music throughout the entire great room.  Will those ceiling speakers above the dining table play well in this scenario, or require new configuration anytime we go between tv watching w/surround, and total room music?  The speakers above the dining table’s proximity is somewhat close to the couch in the living room, so having more speakers in the ceiling dedicated for surround feels a bit much, so am hoping through proper room configurations it might be possible for those speakers above the dining to act either way as needed.  Also I realize people may have feedback discouraging the use of the architectural speakers as surround speakers (maybe), if so am interested in that feedback too.

Please be aware, I have never had my hands on a Sonos system, am a total newbie.  But I am very tech proficient, and have an audio engineer background.  This simply to say I haven’t gotten to play with it myself to figure it out myself, but also before making the investments I want to be sure I’m on the right track.  Thanks for any feedback!

Many users have asked this question and the answer is no.

When you add surrounds to a soundbar or amp, on the surround device, line in and Bluetooth (if available) are disabled, and the speaker/Amp can only be used for surround audio. 

To set them up differently, you would need top unpair and retune every time you wanted to change their function: A PITA if you ask me. 

Getting a pair of Era 100s as surrounds for the Ultra would be my recommendation. This way you will have three distinct zones that you can group in any order you wish.

Thanks for this feedback, very appreciated.  I suspected this was the case, but figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask.  I’ve heard the new Arc Soundbar has some impressive qualities so maybe this won’t be an issue.  We have more of a movie space for watching movies with big sound, this is more an everyday general tv.  Unfortunately the Era 100s would be tricky in that space to get power to them (just the way the room is laid out), so was really looking to keep things in the ceiling.

Thanks again!

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings